Digitization Project at Alexandria Library Expands Access to Documents about 1939 Civil Rights Event

Libraries represent the pinnacle of civil society. They are the places in our communities that offer egalitarian learning spaces for the youngest learners, school-age students, adults and everyone else in between. There are more than 17,000 public libraries in the United States, and they play an outsized role when it comes to providing those learning spaces, particularly because there aren’t any requirements for entrance, and access to their books and materials only requires ID and proof of residence.

But it wasn’t always that way. One of those 17,000 libraries is the Kate Waller Barrett branch of the Alexandria Library located in the Virginia city’s Old Town neighborhood—a library that started as a segregated space, available only to White people.

Today, this branch of Alexandria’s library system is a bustling branch library and also home to the Local History/Special Collections branch and archives. On a Thursday afternoon this spring, several librarians there were hard at work on a massive digitization project that will help tell the story of a civil rights protest against that denial of access—a demonstration that took place in the very same space 85 years ago.

The librarians’ work typically involves maintaining both digital and physical archives of legal documents and resources like birth, death and marriage certificates, wills and deeds, microfilm copies of older local newspapers, information about historic buildings and houses and so much more valuable, hyper-local information. Now their work, which was just getting started on that Thursday in April, also involves scanning and indexing thousands of documents that will enable anyone, anywhere, to be able to read, view, and learn more about what happened before, during, and after the 1939 sit-in, event, the first recorded civil demonstration for the right to use a desegregated library.

Among these thousands of documents are library board meeting minutes, biographical materials about librarians and city leaders, and typed letters from a young Black lawyer named Samuel W. Tucker who wrote to the head of the library in March of 1939 asking why his neighbor, a retired Black Army sergeant, was not allowed to register for library services.

This digitization work in Alexandria is part of New America’s 1939 Library Sit-In Project, an effort to amplify the significance of this civil rights event for national audiences and provide new resources for educators to bring this history to their classrooms. Last summer, we received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to begin this work, with more than two-thirds of funds going to the Alexandria Library to purchase equipment, hire interns, and enable staff to dedicate time to the project.

When the digitization is complete, people anywhere in the world will be able to go to the library’s website and click into the archives to gain access to clear digital copies of letters, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and other primary source materials. Educators and students, from school or home, will be able to engage more deeply with digitized resources that tell the story of the sit-in.

“When we place materials online,” says Patricia Walker, the director of the Local History/Special Collections branch, “our colleagues at other branches will have access to the information and can help Alexandrians of all ages to know and understand the history of the City.” This knowledge, she added, can also help residents understand how past events have led to current City Council decisions and initiatives.

Now that the digitization equipment is in place at the library, it can be used to digitize other collections as well, and help fulfill requests from the general public for digital copies of materials. For a fee, patrons can request to have eligible materials from the collections to be digitized.

The entire process of digitizing something is pretty straightforward, and in April, Katherine Crowe, one of Alexandria’s special collections librarians, demonstrated how it will work. Funds from the NHPRC grant purchased a planetary instant capture digitization system from DT-Heritage that was customized for their needs and utilizes a Phase One camera, which is designed for cultural heritage work. A staff member selects an item to digitize, and places it on what looks like a flat black table, directly under the camera, which is attached to a tall column over five feet high. Using Capture One software, settings are adjusted from a computer so that the camera can capture a true-to-life image of the item on the table.

Once settings like shutter speed, aperture and ISO are finalized, the camera goes to work creating an image file. Staff are then able to attach metadata – information like name, author or creator, and year of creation that follows the image everywhere. The Phase One camera can capture two-dimensional media of all types and can even capture large-format pieces like maps and blueprints. If an item is too big for the camera to capture in one shot, photographs are taken in sections and the Capture One software stitches them together automatically as it generates the file, which was previously done manually by an individual in editing software like Photoshop.

Phase One cameras are typically found in academic and research libraries and are rarely, if ever, seen in public libraries. And while the Local History/Special Collections branch has EPSON flatbed scanners, the new equipment has allowed staff to process more types of materials and media and at an exponentially faster rate than in years prior. Digitization that would have taken multiple hours with the old equipment can now be done in a matter of minutes. This, according to Branch Manager Tricia Walker, will improve work processes so that staff aren't having to make a choice to focus on scanning at the expense of for reference, preservation, and descriptive work.

Digital humanities and the digitization of cultural heritage materials is an incredibly important process, particularly for preserving materials that degrade over time. In 2007, the National Archives created the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI), which established standards for digitizing archival materials, with ratings that go from one to four stars. Alexandria Library’s Special Collections branch was able to provide some services with their previous scanners, but the upgrade to the new camera is increasing the quality with which the staff can digitize materials. Two-star quality imaging was possible with the old equipment, but now the Library can consistently produce three- and four-star quality imaging in less time.

Crowe, Walker, and other members of the library staff expressed profound excitement about the new setup not just for the purchase but for what it means for the broader Alexandria community. Rose Dawson, the library’s first Black executive director, established an annual Black Family Reunion in 2023, encouraging community members to bring photo albums and other family records. This year, library staff will be able to digitize records like family bibles and other primary source materials that Alexandria residents, especially Black residents, may have in their personal possession.

Last year, Walker said, the library used “four Epson flatbeds, a DSLR camera, and a book scanner to do all of the photography and scanning of the items people brought for the event with individuals assigned to each piece of equipment. This year, we will likely only need the DT-Atom, a book scanner, and one Epson flatbed to handle the same amount of material.” She added, “The Phase One camera and the lighting set-up for the DT-Atom are vast improvements over our photography set-up last year.”

In related news, the Alexandria Black History Museum (another partner on the 1939 Library Sit-In Project), also recently won a second grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to digitize photographs, books, and memorabilia related to local African American history.

You can read more about New America’s 1939 Library Sit-In Project here and you can learn more about Alexandria Library’s Local History/Special Collections branch here.